


The Trees Tell of the Sun

by alamorn



Series: fireflies [2]
Category: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (Movies)
Genre: F/F, Femslash Big Bang Monthly Challenge, Pre-Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-02
Updated: 2017-05-02
Packaged: 2018-10-26 18:51:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,026
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10792647
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alamorn/pseuds/alamorn
Summary: Seraphina did not consider herself a happy person. She still needed to find her Patronus.





	The Trees Tell of the Sun

**Author's Note:**

> for the prompt "Happiness"
> 
> title from "Let Birds" by Linda Gregg

Seraphina did not consider herself a happy person. She wasn’t a _sad_ person, either. She was just busy. Focused. Ever since she decided to go to Ilvermony she’d been working towards a goal. To prove herself. To change the world. It didn’t leave a lot of room for worrying about such nebulous things as emotions.

But with Grindelwald locked in the depths of MACUSA, the Ministry was clamoring for her to allow dementors into her country. And before she would even consider that, she needed a Patronus that came as easy as breathing.

She locked her office door with a wave of her hand and perched on the edge of her desk, considering. She hated using her wand, but it was how the spell was done, so she grasped it firmly. It felt like as much of a weight as always, forcing her magic into the wrong shape.

What was her happiest memory?

Walking the boundary with her mother on a perfect April day, the early morning air damp, the sky a perfect gray.

_Swish_. Nothing. She let her lips tighten with a moue of displeasure.

The day she and Percy skipped class and wandered through Boston, stopping at sweet shop after sweet shop, and when a Burner said something about the color of her skin, Percy punched him and they had to run back to Ilvermony and it was the first time she knew she could trust him.

_Swish_. The barest flicker and shiver of gold, collapsing into nothing from the weight of the air. Well. Of course it wouldn’t be easy.

Her election. The slow, unspooling warmth of watching the votes roll in and _knowing_ that she’d done it, that she’d proven something so important and close to her heart that even now she had trouble saying it out loud. She’d murmured something pointed and savage and satisfied to Percy, something about the swamp making it to the heights of government, but the words hadn’t mattered. What had mattered was her mother’s face in the fire, crying and joyous. What had mattered was the way Percy squeezed her hand, his face set hard in triumph. What had mattered was her first step into _her_ office, this office.

_Swish_. The Patronus almost took shape that time, but it was still more a suggestion of a shape than the shape itself. Something sweeping and expansive. A bird?

Grindelwald’s face, when she played her ace, Queenie perfectly responsive to her needs, the knowledge of Percy’s soon to be safety. The combination of _winning_ , of finding a partner that could keep up, the relief of knowing her oldest friend still lived and had not betrayed her…

Her Patronus burst from the tip of her wand and surged across the room, a great golden eagle, and she smiled, open and delighted.

When it faded away, she thought again of Queenie Goldstein. It wasn’t unusual for her to think of Queenie — she’d been hoping to use the Legilimens for years now. What was unusual was that she thought of the woman before the power this time.

As useful as a mind-reader would be to her no matter the user, she found herself glad the power was attached to _Queenie_ , with her smiles and her sweetness.

MACUSA needed more sweetness. Or perhaps she was projecting — Seraphina tried to be honest with herself. _She_ needed more sweetness. She spent too much time with sour-faced old men.

Without meaning to, she found herself imagining drinking from that sweetness. Queenie beaming at her. Queenie standing in front of her desk with her hands behind her back, rocking with excitement to please her. Queenie pressing her lips to Seraphina’s.

She pulled her fingers from her lips. She hadn’t meant to press them there.

Carefully, she put both of her hands flat on the desk behind her. They would stay there until she was sure what she was doing with them. Queenie would be able to hear these thoughts on her, if she wasn’t careful, and that would be…

Unprofessional.

Queenie was her employee, after all. It would never do to take advantage of her in such a way.

There was a knock on the door.

She wasn’t expecting anyone. One of the aurors with some horrible business she’d have to deal with because no one could clean up their own messes? Percy, with his hands shaking and his eyes wild, and totally unwilling to go home? One of the Senators, here to complain or bully or beg or try to twist her into something?

She waved a hand, unlocking the door and letting it swing open. “Come in,” she said, walking around to sit behind her desk.

Queenie poked her head in, looking bashful. “Hi!” she said. “If I’m overstepping, you can tell me to get lost but—“

“Come _in_ ,” Sera repeated, waving at her. “I won’t bite if you come closer.” _Unless you asked_ , her treacherous mind added.

Queenie flushed but came in. “Just…I thought you might like to get out of the building. All the upset in here’s been giving _me_ a headache, and I’m not even responsible for all of it. And it seemed slow. So. I thought I’d take you for coffee or something?”

_Unprofessional_ , she thought, mildly enough, but Queenie looked at her toes, and clasped her hands behind her back. A near match.

“I could take a working break,” Seraphina admitted. “If my Legilimens wanted to take the opportunity to keep me updated on anything I needed to know.”

Queenie beamed at her. “I do my best talking over hot cocoa, so really this is just business.”

Sera didn’t huff a laugh, but it tickled the inside of her throat. “In that case,” she said, and stood and grabbed her coat.

They walked out side by side, and when they left the building Sera took a deep breath of her first outside air in, oh, days. She could hardly call it _fresh_ , but just seeing the sky made the world a little less unbearable.

“Good idea?” Queenie asked, peering shyly at her from behind a fall of blond curls.

“A good idea,” Sera agreed, and off they went.


End file.
